The War On Unapproved Voluntary Exchange

Latest Update: July 25, 2017

Sessions suggests Trump lied when he advocated marijuana legalization be left to the states
The DEA says ‘marijuana is not medicine’ — reality says otherwise
The states are revolting; marijuana legalization not just happening at the ballot box 

Trump doubles down on failed drug war; wants more prisons less freedom

Kratom could be a cure for the Opioid Epidemic, yet the DEA wants to ban it

On 4/20, it’s a mixed bag for backers of pot legalization

The deadly war on drugs, waged by your local SWAT team

The war on drugs is a war on people

J.D. Tuccille: If Prohibitions Cannot Work Within The Prison System, How Can They Work In The Outside World?

Answer: they can't.   Last week, Karl Jensen and Lisa Mary Hutchinson were sent to the lockup for smuggling a knife, drugs, and a McMuffin into the UK's Wormwood Scrubs prison. Maybe somebody still on the outside will toss a sandwich over the wall to help them pass the time. In a related story, at about the same time Larry Michael Webb and Holly    ... MORE

Pew Research: Homicide Rates Have Been Cut In Half Over The Past 20 Years (While New Gun Ownership Soared)

"An armed society is a polite society" - R A Heinlein. The Pew Research Center reported last week that the murder rate was cut nearly in half from 7 per 100,000 in 1993 to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2013. Over the same period, overall gun deaths (including accidents and suicides) have fallen by one-third from 15.2 to 10.6 per 100,000. In spite of this, Pew   ... MORE

High Cigarette Taxes May Be More Harmful Than Smoking

by Jonathan Nelson.    The incentives created by government. New York's cigarette taxes are the highest in the nation, at $4.35 per pack. Some New Yorkers naturally will seek to avoid cigarette excise taxes. People are tempted to buy cigarettes in a low-tax state such as North Carolina and sell them in New York, says Jonathan Nelson.   ... MORE

VIDEO: The Economics Of The Shawshank Redemption

The Boom In Smuggling To Avoid Cigarette Taxes

by Jonathan Berr.        Another government-provoked black market. More than half of the cigarettes sold in New York State are smuggled in from other places to avoid the Empire State's taxes on smokes, which have soared nearly 200 percent since 2006, according to a report issued by the conservative Tax Foundation. New York is the highest net    ... MORE

Sin Tax Wars! 60.9% Of All Smokes In NY Go Untaxed

High taxes push consumers toward smugglers.    With all the nonsense that’s been going on in the Empire State of late – especially the Governor’s successful gun rantings - I’d begun to worry that New York was doomed for mediocrity. But for better or worse, you just can’t keep the government of this state down. If we can’t lead in freedom,   ... MORE